Come To Texas! We Are Better for Business!
Meanwhile, in the Texan business community …
Well, come to find out, the West Fertilizer Company lied to the EPA.
The fertilizer plant that exploded Wednesday night in West, Texas, reported to the Environmental Protection Agency and local public safety officials that it presented no risk of fire or explosion, documents show.
West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand in an emergency planning report required of facilities that use toxic or hazardous chemicals.
But the report, reviewed Wednesday night by The Dallas Morning News, stated “no” under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one.
So the volunteer firefighters at the burning plant had no idea what they were dealing with. Because it’s easy to lie in Texas. All ya gotta do is check a box.
And why would they lie? They were storing 1,350 times the amount of ammonium nitrate that would normally trigger safety oversight by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They didn’t want EPA or the DHS in their business. That might cost them time and money.
We all know how Rick Perry feels about the EPA, don’t we? He thinks it’s sole goal is to kill jobs.
“Somebody has to tell the E.P.A. that we don’t need you monkeying around and fiddling around and getting in our business with every kind of regulation you can dream up,” he said. “You’re doing nothing more than killing jobs. It’s a cemetery for jobs at the E.P.A.”
So, Rick Perry handed us this mushroom cloud on a silver platter.
I cannot wait to hear hear him and Ron Paul explain how the market forces will correct this. The company will declare bankruptcy, its owners will keep their money and the injured people will hold bake sales to pay their medical bills. That’s what we call “Business Friendly” in Texas.
But now Rick Perry, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz just love the Federal Government. I tell you what, I would buy Chris Christie an airplane ticket if he would come down to West, Texas, and shake his finger in Ted Cruz’s face. Cruz voted against aid for New Jersey but now wants aid for Texas.
They can all kiss my big blue butt.
This explosion not only killed jobs, it killed a lot of people. If Perry is against killing jobs (we know he’s indifferent to people) then he should denounce the factory owners.
1The day after Rick Perry gets his hands on the disaster aid money that President Obama promised, it will be back to normal for the Governor of the State of Texas, more condemnation of “big-gubmint intrusion”.
2Good ol’ UT lawyering here. “Wanna inspect? Get a warrant or an order from a judge … if you can get on the docket!”, said the lawyer masquerading as a gate-guard.
3So when are the good citizens of Texas going to get their heads out of their collective arses and quit electing these idiots who speak out of both sides of their mouths… against the government because it is evil, until they need it.?..
I’d also put out the welcome mat for Chris Christie to come down to throw his weight around the bozos who represent us in Washington DC.
My big blue butt is also available for kissing, Gov Perry, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn…. et al.
4Another fine piece by Juanita. The hypocrisy of those people is a subject all Texas students should study in school. The definition of embarrassment might also help.
5This week,The fallacies of the Republican Party have been blown up for all to see.
6We need government to regulate businesses who don’t care about the damage they do to the people, environment or economy.
We need government to help during disasters and we need government to enforce the rule of law and protect its citizens, and
We need the Department of Education to set the bar high enough so our
citizens can see through the horse s**t which passes for politics in our country.
Yes, yes, yes, Blue Butts and all. You said it….Adios, mofos to GoodHair and Co~
7Why is the owner or owners of this company not arrested?
His lying/negligence caused more death and destruction then these 2 bombers.
Why are they terrorists and he/they are not?
The two men in Boston used bombs to kill and destroy.
The plant owner/s used lies and deceit.
They both had a callous disregard for human life.
Are the Boston men terrorists because they hated the US?
What makes the owner of the fertilizer plant any less a terrorist? He valued money over the health and well being of others.
Is it any worse to deliberately kill then to shirk responsibility, to lie about what you are producing and to have lax health and safety precautions? In hopes that you can make money and hope the “worst” never happens?
If the Boston bombers are terrorists, then surely, the owner or owners of the plant is too.
8– Diane;
9You and I … and by inference, the collective reading here, are the choir. The problem lies in the laws passed by legislatures that are financed by businesses who are worshiped by each other and their employees, vendors and customers.
That we should have the electoral weight to provide this change is my dream. I work daily to achieve this social equity.
Perhaps we should take a page from republican tactics. Include the background check legislation as part of the emergency aid bill.
10Diane. The owners of the Texas plant are good Republicans who probably contributed to Perry’s campaign. Or Cruz’s. Or Cronyn’s. Or Golmert’s. They were then exempt from meddlesome state regulators prying. The Boston Bombers probably didn’t contribute to any Republican campaigns.
11@Diane … I stand and applaud you and your comment! I think you hit the ole nail right on the head! Dang, girl!!
All of the comments are right on …
12And people who work in very unsafe wokplaces keep voting for Perry and his lies.
13No, no – this explosion created new jobs. Construction jobs for rebuilding, hospital worker jobs for the injured, funeral home jobs for the dead – jobs, jobs, jobs.
Of course, those pesky trial lawyers will probably get involved now. They’ll make some tired argument about how storing 250+ tons of ammonium nitrate near residential structures, and having it explode, was negligent of someone.
Of course, this disaster was no more foreseeable than the housing bubble. It wouldn’t be very business-friendly to hold these businessmen to a higher standard than that of the London Whale, would it?
14This incident does somewhat confirm my usual addition of “theater” to DHS. Here was a half million pounds of explosive sitting next to 50,000 pounds of poison gas, and they had no idea it was there? They were depending on the company telling them that they had it? They didn’t notice this bomb was protected by just a chain link fence, and not even a night watchman?
Hell they were created to coordinate records between the various agencies that might have some information that when combined with the stuff from an unrelated agency leads to uncovering a “furrin plot”.
In this case they told the EPA that the stuff was sitting there. Just like the bank sends your interest paid statements to both you and the IRS, the EPA should have been telling TSA “here are all the places we know about that should be reporting to you”
15Sorry ’bout the yummy photo – need to Copy before Paste:
http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/texas-fertilizer-plant-failed-to-disclose-massive-ammount?ref=fpb
16Diane – thank you for saying with such eloquence what I’ve been thinking. I hope some of the folks in West get some big time New York lawyers and unleash some whoop ass.
17Nobody coulda knowed that havin’ lotsa ‘monium nite-rate fertilizer around might lead to a fire or ‘splosion.
But, whatever you do, don’t look up ‘Texas City Disaster’ in wikipedia, y’all.
18Juanita Jean, that was mighty fine writing on your part, and all the comments are quite good too. Thanks everyone!
When will Perry start blaming President Obama for this horrible incident?
19Now, then, all you blue asses out there available for pucker-planting, I have to say that – though I am in full and unbridled sympathy with the spirit of your ass-proferring – that I haven’t worked to keep my ol’ ass in peach-perfect shape all these years only to have it besmirched by the likes of Loupy-Lips Perry! No sir: this blue ass is reserved for something higher! (I have spoke my piece. Otherwise, love this site! woot snicker Who’s got the next round?)
20Should this be Perry’s presidential campaign poster? Sorry it attacks the whole state. What sweet revenge when you turn blue!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152743750375203&set=a.136135610202.226842.569625202&type=1&theater
21I wondered what I could find out about the fertilizer company’s owner. It turns out that 83-year old Donald Adair issued a statement yesterday to the citizens of West. You can find parts of it in various places, but I think this is probably a complete version. Keep some Tums handy if you read the whole thing at http://permianbasin360.com/fulltext?nxd_id=262582
Overall, the statement left me pretty much disgusted as Adair expresses his “heartfelt sympathy for those affected” and “appreciation for those who responded”… blah-blah-blah….
“I am proud to be associated with West Church of Christ, which has opened its doors to the State of Texas to provide grief counseling services. My family and I will continue to assist in relief efforts through our church family. The genuine kindness we have witnessed will be the hallmark for all of our children’s children.
“Going forward, the owners and employees of Adair Grain and West Fertilizer Co. are working closely with investigating agencies. We are presenting all employees for interviews and will assist in the fact finding to whatever degree possible. We pledge to do everything we can to understand what happened to ensure nothing like this ever happens again in any community…”
So maybe it’s a mystery to him what happened? Really? I guess he’s the last to know what a bomb he had brewing at his company. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like someone in the fertilizer business oughta remember the Murrah building attack in 1995 and Texas City’s horrific disaster 66 years ago. I dunno….. Like maybe his first clue is when he’s holding 270 tons of ammonium nitrate only a few hundred feet away from the citizens of his own town?
I want “the hallmark” of this disaster to be that he gets his sorry old arse dragged off to jail where he belongs.
And his wife’s in on this, too:
“The Adair family is a fixture in the town of West. Wanda Adair, age 79, is listed as a co-owner at West Fertilizer, and as a director of the West Chamber of Commerce and a director of the local branch of the Kiwanis Club, a volunteer group. A call to the West Chamber of Commerce went unanswered.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/19/us-usa-explosion-fertilizer-idUSBRE93I04W20130419
Diane’s exactly on point. The homemade bomb in West, Tx did even more damage locally than the two terrorists in Boston, although all of it is horrific.
The Adairs need to pay every last dime of every last expense of the poor people now suffering so terribly, as well as damages to the families of those who died. And then they need to go to prison for the rest of their selfish, profit-driven lives. Then let’s see how many of their ol’ local buddies make the drive to go see them rot behind bars.
But that’s jus’ me.
22Agree with everything here, but I think it should be pointed out that the mushroom cloud in the picture is from a refinery fire in Big Spring (west Texas, not West, Texas) in 2008.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikehayes/this-is-not-the-texas-fertilizer-plant-explosion
23And here’s another picture of the mushroom cloud in Big Spring in case you doubt the previous link….
http://funkyartqueen.blogspot.com/2008/02/refinery-explosion-big-spring-texas.html
24Yeah, just found out that Homeland Security was depending on self-reporting (like that ever consistently works!) from the fertilizer plants. West Fertilizer reported 270 tons of ammonium nitrate in 2012 when they’d never made a report before and it didn’t trigger anyone’s hot button. “That’s just a god awful amount of ammonium nitrate,” said Bryan Haywood, the owner of a hazardous chemical consulting firm in Milford, Ohio. “As a former HAZMAT coordinator, that would have been a red flag for me.” [Reuters]
RepubAnon, I’ve heard several people talking about the plant’s proximity to schools, apartments, and the nursing home. It seems none of that was out there when the plant was built. Some real estate developer thought it was a good idea to build around it, I expect. The plant was not built with any blast wall because there was originally no need for one.
Eyesoars, I thought “Texas City,” too, even though the scope of West, bad as it is, is much much smaller. I work at DPS and when I was first here I worked in the Division of Emergency Management. One year we got a fascinating presentation on the Texas City disaster and what they learned about victim identification from it (and from what they’d done wrong). Not for the faint of heart and hopefully not necessary for this disaster
25It is important to add this isn’t the first time Rick Perry has allowed budgetary concerns to outweigh public safety. Remember the wildfires? That came after he decided it was a wonderful idea to cut state funding for Texas volunteer fire departments from $30 million to $7 million.
He may not be responsible for the disaster directly but in the West Texas case, the state regulators, The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), already had a reputation for lax oversight even before this. Before Perry decided to reduce funding for the agency by about $295 million, or 34 percent in 2011.
http://nomadicpolitics.blogspot.com/2013/04/west-texas-explosion-price-of-poor.html
26Last evening on the news – it was either NBC or the NBC-affiliate in Nashville, showed GoodHair on the teevee machine “begging” President Obama for money to “fix” the problems he helped create- and what was the IDIOT WEARING? A handmade tailored oxford cloth dress shirt, stiff-starched to perfection, and because he is so prissy, it was embroided with the Lone Star, an assault rifle below it, and the words “Come and Take It”.
Methinks someone should “come and take” Guv El Estúpido to the nearest “Home For the Bewildered” in a straight jacket~
27“Terrorism by Bureaucracy”
28Other examples of their sheer stupidity responsible judgement nope: sheer stupidity it is.
Back in February, when the place had so much highly flammable explosive sitting around getting ready for planting, that some of it was sitting around outdoors, they also had a pile of old pallets and some brush to get rid of. Ever the tidy sorts apparently, they took action and disposed of it all. With an open bonfire. On the premises.
I think the only reason we are hearing of this, is that someone at the middle school noticed flames, and having more of a clue than their management team pulled the “this is not a drill” test of their evacuation plan.
29The Repugs have pretty much forced reduced funding for OSHA & other regulatory agencies. This sad incident & the financial crash of 2008 are just two results. And, to date, they’re still calling for more deregulation. So sad.
30Dayum!
31You just can’t fix stupid sometimes…
Governor Perry: State Oversight Not to Blame for West Blast
Perry told The Associated Press that he remains comfortable with the state’s level of oversight following last week’s massive blast in the rural farming town of West that killed 14 people and injured 200. Federal and state investigators say they have yet to identify the cause of the explosion.
Perry suggested that the majority of Texas residents agree with him.
“(People) through their elected officials clearly send the message of their comfort with the amount of oversight,” Perry said Monday.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/51623287/ns/local_news-dallas_fort_worth_tx/#.UXaB5sqU_Sd
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